“Sonic” co-creator and “Balam” director Yuji Naka was fined $1.2 million for insider trading.
Late last year, Naka was arrested on suspicion of (then) insider trading when he bought the rights to Dragon Quest Tact and Final Fantasy VII: First Soldier developer Ateam Entertainment Inc before the games were publicly announced. stock. Now, according to Japanese outlet Jiji (thanks PC Gamer), Naka has been fined a hefty fine. The fine was divided into two parts, a relatively modest 2 million yen ($14,000) fine and another 171 million yen ($1.2 million) fine.
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as speculated SegabitA Yahoo News report stated that he was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison, but was also sentenced to 4 years of probation. He apparently showed “remorse” which resulted in a suspended sentence. Essentially, the game developer doesn’t actually go to jail, but the suspension can be lifted if he does anything else illegal. So unless Naka decides to get a little stupid, I don’t expect to hear anything about him going to jail.
When Naka appeared in court in March, he directly admitted to the charges against him, so it’s a bit of a no-brainer. However, Naka has not yet issued a public statement on the fine.
Naka originally worked at Sega from 1984 to 2006, most notably co-creating Sonic the Hedgehog and Dream Night. He started his own studio in 2006, though it never made any notable games. In 2018, the developer joined Square Enix and directed 2021’s The Wonderful World of Balaam. Naka then left Square Enix in 2022, and more than a year later, he was in trouble.
